Rounders Collector's Edition DVD

The collector's edition contains a commentary that includes Edward Norton, director John Dahl, and screenwriters David Levien and Brian Koppelman and a behind the scenes segment on "Rounders". There are also several features that would appeal to the avid poker player.
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Sources: Movie Poster Warehouse, Amazon.fr

Rounders is available on Collector's Edition DVD and on video. If you're fond of the music of the film, the soundtrack is also available.

Summary

Set against the backdrop of New York's high-stakes underground poker world, Rounders is the tale of Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), a master card player who trades the poker-playing rounds for law school and a shot at a new life with his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol). For Mike, the new life he's staking out seems like a legitimate road to success, but it's short on the thrills and excitement of backroom poker games. But when Mike's longtime friend Worm (Edward Norton) is released from prison, Mike is faced with the high-stakes dilemma of his life: to keep on the straight and narrow, or deal himself back into the world of the rounders for the sake of his friend.

Also stars Martin Landau, John Turturro, John Malkovich, and Famke Janssen (director-John Dahl).

Summary adapted from Damon and Norton interview on Entertainment Tonight website. Read the ET interview.

Here are some comments made by Edward Norton on his Rounders character Worm. These are from several different interviews and I have tried to piece them together into some sort of coherent structure. It may be slightly disjoined.

"I think Worm is the kind of person a lot of us have run into at one point or another who can, with their enthusiasm and their spirit and their sense, make everything seem like it's going to be fun. And then you get 10 minutes down the road and you're going, 'How did I get involved in this?' And I certainly have had friends like that. When you look at the script and that story, you have to ask yourself, 'Why does Mike (Matt Damon) stick with this guy ?' And that is one way into the character because you have to adjust the tone of whatever Worm does to make it believable that Mike sticks with him. And so, I literally did get thinking like, you know, in the tradition of sort of lovable rogues. He's like Bugs Bunny dressed as Keith Richards. Like Bugs, he's a merry prankster who has this chaotic impulse. He's always scheming and staying just two steps ahead of a sound beating, but kind of laughing as he goes and never taking anything too seriously. When I saw Keith, I knew this was the other side of the character. He's a strutting cowboy. I told the wardrobe people to get me a whole rack of Keith's clothes, and they did. [Worm's clothes] say a lot about how he feels about himself. He's got a rock and roll spirit and he's the only one who thinks he's got any style. I had the makeup artists make a tattoo of the ace of spades on my wrist because that's Worm's whole philosophy in life: Always keep an ace up your sleeve.

"All of us were focused on the strange nature of [Mike and Worm's] friendship and the theme of what it takes for people to be who they are. Fundamentally this was a story about self-definition and that moment in life when you have to decide how you're going to define outside people's expectations for you and follow your passion or not. Though he's apparently reckless and self-destructive, he's almost the cowboy philosopher. He's very, very comfortable with his own life and the way he lives it. So I liked the fundamental message of all that but I also probably wanted to play Worm because I am not like that. It's thrilling to explore that idea of living free of the fear of consequence for a while and to try and move around it, even if you're affecting a pose.

"When you play poker at that level, there are all kinds of styles you can adopt. You can be the stone-faced killer, the chatty tourist, or you can be like Worm, a guy who relentlessly aggrevates people to try and shake 'em up, and I tried to do that. I found it takes a lot of nerve to constantly step up and get in people's faces like that and sincerely not be afraid that someone's going to take you out back and beat you up."

World Series of Poker

Matt Damon and Edward Norton participated in the championship Texas Hold'em (No Limit) match of the 1998 World Series of Poker held at Binion's Horseshoe (May 11-14, 1998). They were sponsored by Binion's and were eliminated in the early rounds (on May 11). For information on their involvement in the WSOP, visit my poker page.

Other Interesting Stuff

Entertainment Tonight (7/25-7/26/98) had an interview with Matt Damon in which he talked about playing poker in Rounders. Damon said, "Actually I looked into trying to get blank [playing] cards because what I wanted to do was give away nothing every time. And the players really play so good that no matter what cards you pick up they can tell you prety much what you have in your hand based on subconscious things that you do." He also said that the advantage to playing poker in a movie is that if you visibly react to your cards, you can just redo the scene.

MattDamon.com has a wonderful Rounders section called 'Rounders' Hotel and Casino

The Independent Film Channel's series "Split Screen" Episode #21 features a segment on Matt Damon and Edward Norton partcipating in the World Series of Poker. It has shown on both IFC and Bravo. Go to IFC's Split Screen Page.

Entertainment Tonight Online features two Rounders interviews. One from May with Matt Damon and Edward Norton and one from September with only Edward Norton. View both interviews.

ESPN showed a special called "Hollywood Hits the Poker Table". It reviewed past films that focused on card playing, showed clips from "Rounders", covered the 1998 World Series of Poker, featured interviews with some of the actors in Rounders, and the Rounders movie trailer was shown several times during the commercials.

Rounders aroung the world-The title of Rounders was changed depending on the country in which it was released. In Italy, the title became Il Giocatore which translates to "The Player". In France, it was called Les Joueurs, which translates to "The Players" (visit Bac Films' Les Jouers site). French Canadians have a different title- Dernier tour de table which by my elementary translation tool apparently means "The Last Round Table"

Rounders-related articles

Gamespotting. Premiere magazine Oct 1998. On the set report of the making of Rounders.

"Edward Norton is the star of our movie." Jane magazine Sept 1998. Interview conducted by Rounders screenwriters David Levien and Brian Koppelman.

Good Guys Don't Gamble. Harper's Bazaar. One page article on Matt Damon and Edward Norton.

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The rounder definition above is from an interview with Norton (conducted by the Rounders screenwriters David Levien and Brian Koppelman) from Jane September 1998 interview with Edward Norton

If you have new information on Edward Norton (and you can provide a verifiable and reputable source), please email me- Susan

Note: Articles and images have been posted without permission for noncommercial and nonprofit use with no intention of copyright infringement. The purpose of this reprinting is to disseminate correct information about the actors, films, and studios. I have included author names and links to sources whenever possible.